There hasn’t been a truly great T2, but the franchise is too popular for the rights-holding producers to stop making sequels. As long as Hollywood is going to keep telling stories about Skynet, the studios should expand the Terminator casting pool beyond original star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
As iconic as Schwarzenegger’s take on the T-800 is, there are plenty of other actors who would do a great job with the role of a bloodthirsty robotic killer. From Jason Statham to Charlize Theron, many actors would make a terrific Terminator.
Josh Brolin
From Avengers movies, he’s now a renowned villain actor, too.
The filmmakers could go either way with a Brolin Terminator. He did a fantastic job Deadpool 2, a time-traveling, part-robotic killer from the future who turns out to have a sympathetic motivation. He’d do a great job with a villainous Terminator or a protector sent to keep the villain’s targets safe.
Alicia Vikander
Movies like Fast & Furious cast.
Vikander’s star-making turn was a performance as a duplicitous, double-crossing machine – a cybernetic femme fatale – in Alex Garland’s paranoid sci-fi opus Ex Machina.
Joe Manganiello
Joe Manganiello’s highest-profile franchise role to date (besides Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy) is Deathstroke, the DC Comics universe’s resident cold-blooded mercenary.
Manganiello has the combination of intimidating physicality and movie-star charms that made Arnold Schwarzenegger the perfect choice to play the original Terminator.
Idris Elba
Since his breakout roles as an educated drug pusher in Luther, Idris Elba has been one of the most respected dramatic actors in the world. But he occasionally lets loose with a fun genre role.
Elba played the first bona fide superhuman in the Fast & Furious franchise, a hammed-up yet surprisingly nuanced Jungle Book remake. He’d make a brilliant Terminator.
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves has enjoyed a lucrative career comeback since playing a relentless killer to stunning effect in the John Wick franchise. The so-called “Baba Yaga” is basically impervious to bullets as it is.
Reeves could bring that same ruthless edge to a Terminator who is literally impervious to bullets. Playing an emotionless villain would be an interesting change of pace after audiences have become endeared to Reeves’ hitman with a heart of gold.
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron is an Oscar-winning thespian with plenty of acclaimed dramatic performances under her belt, but she added another feather to her cap when she emerged as an action movie badass in the 2010s.
With her roles in Atomic Blonde, Theron proved her ability to play a lean, mean fighting machine. She’s one of the few actors who would be as convincing as Schwarzenegger in the role of a Terminator.
Sofia Boutella
Up-and-coming action movie star Sofia Boutella was recently cast to lead Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon on Netflix.
One of Boutella’s first major roles was a badass henchwoman with swords for legs in the first Kingsman movie. She could provide similar muscle for Skynet in a Terminator movie.
Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem has recently received praise from critics for his turn as Being the Ricardos. Bardem has received an Oscar nod for his turn as Arnaz.
He’s nominated for Best Actor this time, but Bardem previously won Best ing Actor for his chilling turn as sadistic hitman Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers’ neo-western masterpiece No Country for Old Men. Based on his turn as Chigurh and the fact that he also shares Schwarzenegger’s leading-man charisma, Bardem would make a great Terminator.
Jodie Comer
With roles alongside Ryan Reynolds in The Last Duel, Jodie Comer has become one of the most exciting rising stars in Hollywood. The actor clearly has a bright future and could claim pretty much any project she wants, but she’d be great in the role of a Terminator.
In her attention-grabbing role in Killing Eve, Comer played a cold-hearted murderer to perfection. Terminators are essentially just Villanelle reinforced with titanium.
Jason Statham
Jason Statham is already well-versed in playing unstoppable killing machines, so he might as well make it official with a sinister turn as a Terminator. Statham became one of Hollywood’s most renowned badasses with roles in the Crank franchises.
Statham’s antiheroes tend to be cool-as-ice, tough-as-nails, and irredeemable – a description that perfectly suits a Terminator. Anybody who can believably take on a 75-foot shark can believably play a killer robot.
